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<title>Faith by desertdrift (AlsaTronic)</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28000872">Faith</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlsaTronic/pseuds/desertdrift'>desertdrift (AlsaTronic)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Pacific (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Character Study, Gen, Vignette</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 19:22:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>389</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28000872</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlsaTronic/pseuds/desertdrift</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Merriell has learned not to put too much faith in beautiful things, but he thinks he can put his faith in Eugene instead.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Merriell "Snafu" Shelton &amp; Eugene Sledge, Merriell "Snafu" Shelton/Eugene Sledge</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Faith</h2></a>
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    <p>Merriell doesn’t believe in beautiful things.</p>
<p>That’s not to say he can’t appreciate beauty; he sees it all the time in the gleaming skyscrapers downtown, the shiny cars rich folks keep piling up, the pretty faces of people who wouldn’t give him the time of day. He knows beauty very well; he’s just learned not to put his faith in it.</p>
<p>It’s so easy to want to drown himself in the love or lust of some pretty young thing, or go chasing after the latest fashion statement he knows damn well he can’t afford. Hell, maybe he should apply for one of those white collar jobs; not because he’d get it, no way in hell they’d let a man like him work for them, but just to see the looks on their shocked, lily-white faces.</p>
<p>None of it is real or long-lasting, is the thing. It’s all just distractions from the shit you don’t want to think about. It was a distraction when he was still a boy longing to be anywhere but home, and it’s a distraction now that the only home he has is the darkness of his mind where all the terrible things still linger. Beautiful things don’t stay that way for long, but the things you try to run from, they don’t go anywhere.</p>
<p>But see, Eugene is beautiful, too. It’s not just how, on the surface, he looks like the kind of boy you’d take home to meet your mother (Merriell just might, were his mama still living). It’s in the sharp steel of his gaze when he’s focused on something, picking a problem apart piece by piece because he can’t let it get the best of him. It’s in the subtle way his face pinches up when he’s thinking of (or remembering, dear God, the <em>memories</em>) something unpleasant. It’s in the fiery copper of his hair, how Merriell knows he’s had blood and mud and God knows what other kinds of filth in it, but that didn’t break him.</p>
<p>It’s in the way Eugene knows how to hold him, because he’s been wild, too, and he knows what it takes to calm the beast so the man can show through again.</p>
<p>Merriell has learned not to put too much faith in beautiful things. He thinks he should put his faith into Eugene instead.</p>
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